LAUDERDALE LAKES (CBSMiami) – A South Florida worker was hurt Friday morning after he fell off a ladder inside an empty sewage tank in Lauderdale Lakes.

It happened at the District 1 Water Treatment Plant located at 3701 North State Road 7 where the worker was performing maintenance.

“As he was coming down, he slipped off one of the runs about four foot,” said Steve Ness from Champion Painting.

Shabam El Saidy, 45, is a specialized painter based in Baltimore. He was contracted last week by Fort Lauderdale based Champion Painting to help complete the project of sandblasting and painting the inside of the sewage tank.

“The ball of his foot, that’s all, when he came down he twisted it,” said Ness.

The Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue Technical Response Team brought in a ladder truck with a basket to bring El Saidy to safety.

Once he was safely strapped into the basket, fire rescue crews lifted him out of the empty tank, transferred him onto a gurney and then finally an air rescue helicopter which flew him to Broward Health Medical Center.

Doctors will perform surgery on El Saidy’s broken foot before he returns home to Baltimore to recover with his wife and child.